What a Strange Week It’s Been

It’s been somewhat of an odd week in women’s college lacrosse. I covered three games over a four day period and I saw some things I don’t think I’ve ever experienced in my short time covering this game.

Let’s start with Wednesday night at Homewood Field where Hopkins and Loyola met for the first time in 30 years. Barely even three minutes into the game, lightning strikes and the game goes into a weather delay. Both teams are called off the field and the stadium empties.

The first oddity about this is really more irony than just being weird. We’ve waited 30 years for two teams that sit just a couple miles from each other to play and now the matchup is delayed even longer because of the weather. Haven't we waited long enough!? The second thing that struck me about this was that it was February and there was lightning. I think of February as a winter month. You know, snow, wind maybe, some freezing rain or sleet, but lightning and thunder? It’s just odd.

There were doubts at one point as to if the game would get played that night but an hour and 19 minutes later, the lightning watch was lifted and the teams came back out.

Typically, when it’s raining and wet and the two teams have been delayed over an hour, you expect things to be a little dicey once the game starts. It was a little sloppy, but nowhere near as bad as it could have been.

There was a controversial goal scored in the second half with Hopkins trailing 8-5. Jays midfielder Rachel Serio was struck in the head by Loyola goalie Kerry Stoothoff, which was given a yellow card for the hit. Being the carded player, Stoothoff had to come off the field, which sent in backup Natalie Angelo. Because of the foul, Angelo was positioned four meters behind Serio on the free position from the center hash, leaving Serio with a wide open net to shoot on. Serio cradled a couple times before shooting and the Loyola defense did a good job getting in the shooting lane to deflect the shot. From where I was in the press box, I couldn’t tell if the ball crossed over the goal line or not. Hopkins seemed to think it did while Loyola was in shock when it was called a goal. Nevertheless, the refs gave it to the Blue Jays. Had this game turned out to be a one-goal game, that would be something that you’d certainly look back on. In an 11-7 win for Loyola, it didn’t really impact the overall game, but just added to a night in which it seemed just about anything could happen and I wouldn’t be surprised.

Loyola only won 3 of 20 draw controls and that a team could have such a bad day on the draw and still win is a little mind-boggling in itself. That’s definitely one of the most lopsided draw performances I’ve ever seen.

Loyola was able to make up for it with their defense, which showed why they led the nation in caused turnovers last season. Ana Heneberry and Kellye Gallagher were outstanding defensively. Heneberry kept JHU’s Taylor D’Amore in check with two goals and an assist and Gallagher finished the night with six caused turnovers, mostly on trail checks near the top of the eight on Candace Rossi and Colleen McCaffrey. To put this single game performance into perspective, just look back to last season, where the Division I leader in caused turnovers averaged just over three per game.

Friday night’s game between ACC opponents Maryland and Virginia wasn’t exceedingly out of the ordinary save for one incident in the first half. Trailing 2-1, Maryland’s Iliana Sanza was given a yellow card. Shortly after — 11 seconds to be exact — Virginia’s Morgan Stephens was carded. As the penalties came to an end, the communication between the scorer’s table and the sideline was, well… let’s just call it bad. The scorer’s table said the penalty had released. The reason for the confusion was because they failed to relay which team’s penalty had released. Virginia sent their player on the field and scored a goal within a few seconds to tie the game at two.

After a five-minute pow wow between the coaches, the refs and the scorer’s table, it was decided that because Virginia had been given the wrong information, their player went back into the game before the penalty expired, therefore negating the goal.

From a rules perspective, it’s the right call. But from a frustration perspective, Virginia coach Julie Myers had every right to be furious. Getting a momentum-changing goal called off for something that is completely out of your hands is beyond frustrating. And it showed.

“I think we lost our cool a little with all the fouls and cards that were handed our way,” Myers said after the game. “I think it probably impacted me more as a coach more than it did the girls on the field. [The players] did a nice job of kind of rolling with it.”

Myers went on to suggest having a visible clock on the field for yellow cards, similar to what there is for a shot clock in basketball or penalties in hockey.

Another odd thing happened later in that game when, in the second half, Maryland got the ball to Katie Schwarzmann on the near side wing and held it. No look toward cage. No cuts to the inside. Schwarzmann just held the ball near her own sideline while time ticked off the clock. If you haven’t seen Maryland play a whole lot, you should know that this is something you never see them do. The Terps are all about keeping things fast. They run the ball down your throat, they push in transition and even when they’re in a settled offense, they move fast.

To see them hold the ball, was very odd, but I can understand why it fit into their game plan. Virginia had gone on a 5-1 run midway through the second half to bring the game within a goal. Maryland ended up scoring on the possession and I think that took the wind out of Virginia’s sails a little. They had built up a lot of momentum earlier in the half and for Maryland to hold the ball and eventually score on the possession, really helped them stay in command of the game.

“I was really pleased with the way we did that,” said coach Cathy Reese after the game. “That’s not something we typically do and I just wanted us to be able to stay mentally checked in when we do have the ball on offense. I wanted to pull it out and see what we had. The weather was getting really bad and I wanted to make sure we made that possession count and we did a good job of that.”

A number of upsets dotting the scoreboard throughout the week also made for an interesting week of lacrosse. Rutgers upset Princeton on Wedensday night. On Saturday, Syracuse topped Florida in Gainseville, Towson beat Loyola in a hard fought defensive battle and Stony Brook pulled out a one-goal victory over Hopkins in what turned out to be a shootout despite SBU coach Joe Spallina entering the game expecting a low scoring battle.

“We have respect for the way they play defense,” he said. “They play physical man-to-man defense. Sometimes you see tendencies on film but I didn’t think it would be this high scoring.”

With time winding down and the game tied at 14, Stony Brook found themselves with a man-up situation. With 2:51 left on the clock, the Seawolves brought Janine Hillier, Demmianne Cook and Michelle Rubino over near the sideline and had them pass amongst themselves, essentially burning the man-up opportunity in order to get the last shot on goal. It worked, as SBU inverted with Hillier and Rubino behind the net, which opened up Claire Petersen. She was fouled and scored on the free position with nine seconds left on the clock to seal the win for Stony Brook.

“We went outside the box a little,” Spallina said. “We could have went to the cage and scored but we felt like that was going to give them another possession. Your back up goalie is your back up goalie for a reason, because your starter is a little bit better. I liked the looks we were getting on offense all day and at that point I thought it was important for us to make sure we had an opportunity for one of our best players to make a play.”

The Seawolves remain undefeated and at 5-0, already have more wins than they had in all of 2011. The win over Hopkins marks the first win over a ranked opponent in program history.

“I take things personally. We walked out here and there are Yellow Jackets players wearing Hopkins stuff,” Spallina said. “I told the kids in the locker room, ‘You know all these Long Island kids here are wearing Johns Hopkins stuff. And that should bother you but if I were them I’d be wearing Johns Hopkins stuff too because we haven’t done anything yet.’ So to come here and beat Hopkins in a game where so many people were looking forward to us and expecting us to fall on our face and for us to overcome the adversity is special. It means a lot for me personally and for the university.”